The present invention relates to a vehicle interior light assembly and particularly one which is capable of providing different interior lighting effects.
There exists a wide variety of interior vehicle lights such as the commonly employed dome light mounted in the vehicle roof near the center of the vehicle and which is activated either by the opening of a door or independently by the manual actuation of a separate switch. Such lights are useful for providing general interior illumination. Some fixtures employed in vehicles further include one or more additional separately activated lights which include lenses for providing spot lighting in the area of a passenger or driver such that spot illumination can be selectively provided for reading maps, directions or the like during low ambient light conditions. U.S. Pat. No. 4,241,870 discloses a housing with map reading lamps.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,917,938 and 3,944,804 disclose interior lighting systems in which sliding panels are provided such that a light source can be employed to provide either focused beams of light or a diffuse light or a combination of the two.